Wow, what a week it was. We viewed the two boats and decided on her, my husband and I pretty much had our mind made up after we sat in her and visited with the owner.
We talked all night about what we liked and did not like, then we went and saw her again the next day. It was business this time, we spoke to a surveyor and started talking money. The owner was pretty set on his price 26,500, he did go down to 25,000. We shook on the price and pending the survey, then left this was on Saturday.
My husband and I got into a big argument on Sunday, he drove home to get the money and more stuff. On Monday, we called and scheduled for marinas, survey, and haul out for Thursday, told owner we would need boat at marina by Wednesday. My husband and the owner planned to motor the boat to marina Wednesday morning, it would take 3 hours.
Finding the marina was quite easy. Once my husband got back on Monday from a drive to home and back, we decided to plan out the week. By this time, we had moved passed our argument (not sure what we were arguing for, just nervous I guess) and set Tuesday to find a marina. Luckily, we had traveled quite a bit around the sound to know what each area looked like. We visited several marinas on Tuesday and decided on the marina nearest the haul out, a marina we had been to before, which had lots of amenities. The other marinas were too far, or not so nice, and very industrial. We wanted a marina that could offer a family options while living aboard. We know that this will be a temporary living arrangement, like our spring board to get us ready, but we want it to be tolerable.
Wednesday the owner and my husband took off in the boat, those lucky dogs. Me and our son drove to the marina and met them, we fell more in love with this boat. We were so excited to see them pulling into the marina, and could not wait to get this stuff over and sail away.
Thursday the surveyors inspected her and had her hauled out. My husband negotiated some more with owner because there are some issues, he dropped 1,000 off the price. We sat inside her for a couple hours after the survey contemplating the work needed, the size, the price, and our plans. My husband called the owner and set a time to exchange money for the boat on Friday, and see if he could help us get her in our new slip.
Friday we met the owner, exchanged the money and he easily slipped the boat into our new slip. Later that day, we learned our boat was too big for the slip and that we needed to move it the next day. Our novice experience of moving boats in tight areas had us somewhat worried. We cleaned a bunch of stuff out of the boat that night, when we left the marina to head back to our hotel, we noticed how peaceful the marina was. Looked up and saw a million stars, walked around and heard wildlife, we thought to ourselves this is nice.
Saturday morning our new marina community was very welcoming. We got offers to help jump the engine. My husband started moving the boat while our son and I ate a snack, the fellow boater neighbors helped him tie the boat into the new slip. They even gave our son a new life jacket, we had left home without one, and the one he was wearing was too big.
We had to leave and come home to finish downsizing. And now we cannot wait to go back!
Our Boat
Westsail 32, s/v Harbinger
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
The new boat
Yes, we purchased the boat on our last trip. Thank goodness. We were so ready. And we got it from craiglist, our favorite medium for buying and selling.
She is a beauty, a Westsail 32, 41.2' over all with huge bow-spirit and stern.
She will need a new name with a nice ceremony. She needs some maintenance, she's leaky all over and musty below. She's gonna take a lot of time and cash, but in the end I believe she will be worth it. She'll take us to places we never thought we could go to, and it will be possible with her.
She is a beauty, a Westsail 32, 41.2' over all with huge bow-spirit and stern.
She will need a new name with a nice ceremony. She needs some maintenance, she's leaky all over and musty below. She's gonna take a lot of time and cash, but in the end I believe she will be worth it. She'll take us to places we never thought we could go to, and it will be possible with her.
Head, to compost or not to compost?
We are looking into this, they are expensive, but quite possibly the best thing since sliced bread.
The thought of urine and feces in a tank on your boat grosses me out. And having to repair it grosses me out even more. However, the thought of feces in a medium like moss doesn't gross me out as much, probably, because as a girl who has camped in primitive areas I know how to use the potty outdoors.
In the interest of time and necessity, we have just ordered our composting head and will install it on our new boat soon, yes the boat we just purchased a few days ago. There are some dilemmas with the head on our new boat, the biggest being that there is no holding tank and the marina we have placed it in requires just that, a holding tank. The composting head would operate as a holding tank, it has one for urine and one for feces.
I've never really operated a head, so I'm about to learn. And neither of us have used a composting head. We've watched the video on how to install it and how it operates, and read some reviews online. This is something completely new we are getting ready to explore, potty on a boat. It is pretty important to know how to do this (especially when children are young - getting them out of diapers is a huge hurdle), and it is the first official thing we have bought for our new boat.
Its gonna be interesting, we'll have to teach the children how to use the potty in a different way, pee with valve closed and poop with valve open.
The thought of urine and feces in a tank on your boat grosses me out. And having to repair it grosses me out even more. However, the thought of feces in a medium like moss doesn't gross me out as much, probably, because as a girl who has camped in primitive areas I know how to use the potty outdoors.
In the interest of time and necessity, we have just ordered our composting head and will install it on our new boat soon, yes the boat we just purchased a few days ago. There are some dilemmas with the head on our new boat, the biggest being that there is no holding tank and the marina we have placed it in requires just that, a holding tank. The composting head would operate as a holding tank, it has one for urine and one for feces.
I've never really operated a head, so I'm about to learn. And neither of us have used a composting head. We've watched the video on how to install it and how it operates, and read some reviews online. This is something completely new we are getting ready to explore, potty on a boat. It is pretty important to know how to do this (especially when children are young - getting them out of diapers is a huge hurdle), and it is the first official thing we have bought for our new boat.
Its gonna be interesting, we'll have to teach the children how to use the potty in a different way, pee with valve closed and poop with valve open.
More boats, to live in a trailer or not live in a trailer
Next round of boats, we have a smaller list to see this next visit. We have 2 in particular that we like, Ohlson 38 and Westsail 32. They are very different boats, so it will be interesting to see how they look inside and out. And both are in our price range, with time/work/money we expect to get it running in good shape.
Traveling to see boats is costing us a lot of money. Each time we head to the coast we have to stay in a hotel, at 70-80$ per night, this adds up. Eating out cost more money, and stomach pains. Driving to various marinas adds more money. Occasional sight seeing adds more to the money spending. We are feeling the uneasiness of spending money after we have spent the last year saving for our adventure. Soon the plans and dreams of this adventure will be reality and we cannot wait.
A trailer, or camper, to get us from the house to boat is a thought. Then there is the task of finding a trailer that is decent, licensed, and the gas to move it about. We envision once we are on the boat then we would have to sell it and that could take up some time and money. I think we decided not to do a trailer/camper as a transition, just too much hassle!
Traveling to see boats is costing us a lot of money. Each time we head to the coast we have to stay in a hotel, at 70-80$ per night, this adds up. Eating out cost more money, and stomach pains. Driving to various marinas adds more money. Occasional sight seeing adds more to the money spending. We are feeling the uneasiness of spending money after we have spent the last year saving for our adventure. Soon the plans and dreams of this adventure will be reality and we cannot wait.
A trailer, or camper, to get us from the house to boat is a thought. Then there is the task of finding a trailer that is decent, licensed, and the gas to move it about. We envision once we are on the boat then we would have to sell it and that could take up some time and money. I think we decided not to do a trailer/camper as a transition, just too much hassle!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Cooking and Sewing
Here are two areas I am trying to refine my skills, cooking and sewing.
Now that I have been unemployed for over a month, I am feeling more and more freedom and relaxation. I started making bread without the bread maker, popcorn in the dutch oven, and coffee in an insulated press. I also am staying in my pajamas until afternoon, and taking baths in the middle of the day, oh how wonderful it is.
We sold our microwave, toaster, coffee maker, waffle maker, ice cream maker, magic bullet, blender, rice cooker, and bread machine; this was a huge hurdle. I envision if we are not hooked to shore power, we will have to conserve energy. Instead of waiting until we get on the boat, we will start living life more conservative now (that is with less energy consumption and less space). It was hard to live without the microwave the 1st week, we got so used to using the microwave to quickly melt butter, warm leftovers, make popcorn, and other things. The toaster was not so bad to overcome, I just use the oven to toast bread or frozen waffles. The waffle maker I do miss, but we can have pancakes. The coffee maker was simple to overcome its absence because we love press coffee, it is so rich and bold. The press is not as insulated as I had hoped, but it does a great job at coffee and tea too. And the rice cooker and bread maker are somewhat missed, they do make cooking simpler, but more stuff to store and clean. All those other items were just stuff in our kitchen that we hardly used which just sat in the cabinets taking up space.
It is actually simpler to use the oven and less to clean overall. I am enjoying to cook by using basic ingredients and tools, however, I did keep the coffee grinder and food processor - for how long will be determined later. Our next big decision will be to figure out if we live with or without refrigeration we imagine at times we do not have it and we will have to deal with this.
The sewing skills are not as refined, or exercised, as much as the cooking skills. I did purchase a new Pfaff somewhat industrial strength sewing machine, in anticipation of making repairs to sails, dodgers and other canvas items, and upholstery stuff for cushions. So far I have used it to sew a few things and it works great, it goes through tough materials and does not stop. User error creates most of its short comings when a job gets too difficult. It is easy to operate, especially once I learned how to do it. I attempted to make cushions for our old boat, we sold that boat, but they looked so funny all crooked, however, the foam was covered which was my ultimate goal. This industrial strength sewing is a work in progress.
Now that I have been unemployed for over a month, I am feeling more and more freedom and relaxation. I started making bread without the bread maker, popcorn in the dutch oven, and coffee in an insulated press. I also am staying in my pajamas until afternoon, and taking baths in the middle of the day, oh how wonderful it is.
We sold our microwave, toaster, coffee maker, waffle maker, ice cream maker, magic bullet, blender, rice cooker, and bread machine; this was a huge hurdle. I envision if we are not hooked to shore power, we will have to conserve energy. Instead of waiting until we get on the boat, we will start living life more conservative now (that is with less energy consumption and less space). It was hard to live without the microwave the 1st week, we got so used to using the microwave to quickly melt butter, warm leftovers, make popcorn, and other things. The toaster was not so bad to overcome, I just use the oven to toast bread or frozen waffles. The waffle maker I do miss, but we can have pancakes. The coffee maker was simple to overcome its absence because we love press coffee, it is so rich and bold. The press is not as insulated as I had hoped, but it does a great job at coffee and tea too. And the rice cooker and bread maker are somewhat missed, they do make cooking simpler, but more stuff to store and clean. All those other items were just stuff in our kitchen that we hardly used which just sat in the cabinets taking up space.
It is actually simpler to use the oven and less to clean overall. I am enjoying to cook by using basic ingredients and tools, however, I did keep the coffee grinder and food processor - for how long will be determined later. Our next big decision will be to figure out if we live with or without refrigeration we imagine at times we do not have it and we will have to deal with this.
The sewing skills are not as refined, or exercised, as much as the cooking skills. I did purchase a new Pfaff somewhat industrial strength sewing machine, in anticipation of making repairs to sails, dodgers and other canvas items, and upholstery stuff for cushions. So far I have used it to sew a few things and it works great, it goes through tough materials and does not stop. User error creates most of its short comings when a job gets too difficult. It is easy to operate, especially once I learned how to do it. I attempted to make cushions for our old boat, we sold that boat, but they looked so funny all crooked, however, the foam was covered which was my ultimate goal. This industrial strength sewing is a work in progress.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Turning point
After Christmas in 2011, we had a house full of family and sick kids. I believe,this pushed us over the edge and we decided to change our lifestyle and sail. Work, family, kids, bills, house, and money, all this stress just made us step back and say why did we end up like this. Unhappy in our work places and paying close to a thousand in day care for our son, whom someone else spent most of the day with him instead of his parents, also made us want to get out of here. Spending weekends running because we only had two days to get stuff done, grocery shopping, cleaning, entertaining, the exhaustion from this lifestyle was enough to say we have to get out of this before we end up sick from all this stress. And our employers could care less that we had so much stress, all they want is for us to be there at their beckon call whether we were sick, tired, or fed up.
Before Christmas we read about a family who left their home and boarded a sailboat, heading out to the world with their three children. We talked about it, I told my husband wouldn't that be great, he said yeah sort of, then we talked a little more and that was it. After the Christmas , my husband said lets do it, and I said ok. So we began our journey in early 2012, researching sailboats, live aboards, simple living, and sailing. We made certain commitments to each other, like our wedding rings, we swapped them for tattoos. Now we have a pirates bounty of jewelry we used to wear that we save for our travels on a boat, like a savings account. We also took a sailing class, learned basics of sailing, bought many books, watched many videos, then bought a small boat to practice on at local fresh water lakes.
Our practice sailboat, was exactly what we needed. It lighted a fire in us that we could not believe, we were hooked as a family. We were tested to the max, learning to dock without chewing each other out, cleaning up lots of vomit from a sea sick family member, and success after mishaps at the boat launch felt great. My husband and I reinforced our team work approach to life, we worked together to get the boat ready, get it in the water, operated it together, and had fun on it. I was sad when we sold it, but I cannot wait to get our next sailboat.
Before Christmas we read about a family who left their home and boarded a sailboat, heading out to the world with their three children. We talked about it, I told my husband wouldn't that be great, he said yeah sort of, then we talked a little more and that was it. After the Christmas , my husband said lets do it, and I said ok. So we began our journey in early 2012, researching sailboats, live aboards, simple living, and sailing. We made certain commitments to each other, like our wedding rings, we swapped them for tattoos. Now we have a pirates bounty of jewelry we used to wear that we save for our travels on a boat, like a savings account. We also took a sailing class, learned basics of sailing, bought many books, watched many videos, then bought a small boat to practice on at local fresh water lakes.
Our practice sailboat, was exactly what we needed. It lighted a fire in us that we could not believe, we were hooked as a family. We were tested to the max, learning to dock without chewing each other out, cleaning up lots of vomit from a sea sick family member, and success after mishaps at the boat launch felt great. My husband and I reinforced our team work approach to life, we worked together to get the boat ready, get it in the water, operated it together, and had fun on it. I was sad when we sold it, but I cannot wait to get our next sailboat.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Sailboat shopping, a lot of work
A week of shopping for a sailboat makes us tired. From one marina to the next, driving to unknown locations and meeting new people, is interesting, intriguing, and tiring.
Our first boat of the week is a tragedy, the dealer was quite nice though, a true sailor. He wore no socks and couldn't wait to get out of the cold, and selling boats was a means to that end. The boat itself needed a lot of TLC and new diesel tanks, as it had a major corroding lead tank that held the diesel. It smelled really bad of diesel, phew. We could hardly stand being down under and had to get out into the cold fast.
The second boat on our list wasn't much better, but the more professional dealer turned us onto two other boats for sell there at the marina. This dealer was another character all together, a sail maker by trade and salesman for all the other stuff. He was very knowledgeable about sails and sailboats. The boat we saw had a horrible design and needed too much work to list. The two other boats were placed on our list of potentials because they seem sturdy and seemed to need less work than the first two.
The third boat (or fifth if you count the two extra at prior marina) we thought was a true potential contender with good motion comfort, it turned out to be a disappointment. The design sucked, we explained this nicely to the broker. This broker kindly told us he mainly deals with boats in upper 100k price range, so we basically are out of his price range. Then further told us he was having a custom wood boat made because wood are better than all the rest. We did enjoy visiting this marina because it is the biggest live aboard marina in the area.
The fourth boat was a disaster. It needed just about everything replaced, one could take years and thousands fixing this just to get it off the hard. We drove an hour and a half to see it, however, it wasn't a wasted drive because we stopped at a couple marinas and got a good feel about this northern area.
The next day we were sort of burned out and let down with all these train wrecks of sailboats. Pretty much all of them need a ton of work and look worse in person then in the pictures. When we are on the boat we can smell (the diesel moldy stuff) and feel (the spongy decks and corroded metals), so it gives a much more telling picture of the boat's overall condition. Under hubby's burnt out protest, we went to see the next boat. It turned out to be pretty nice, not ideal, but well taken care of. You can really tell when the owner spends time on their boat and maintains it, rather than letting go all the maintenance. This was a comfy boat, just a little too small in the cabin and no aft berth. It was placed on our contender list.
We took a break from shopping for boats the next to last day, had some fun. Rode the monorail and ate good food. We also played phone tag with a well traveled boat owner who we worked out a boat viewing for our last day of boat viewing, it would be the sixth one on our list or eighth one viewed on this trip.
The sixth and last boat we viewed was another project boat. It had potential, but a lot of work needed. It had an owner who once loved her, but could no longer do it. It was a little too small and short inside, so basically a no go. We spent time in this boat, about two hours, because we mostly just talked with the owner about everything. He was the most interesting person we came across in our boat shopping adventure.
Now here we are, a grand out for the trip, days of being cold, wet, and tired, and maybe we found a boat that says buy me, love me. Then again maybe not. It will all be determined by the money, how much are we willing to give up, and how much the owner is willing to give up too by taking our low ball offer. Or do we try another plan, take all our money elsewhere, give up our dream of sailing and traveling the world? Heck no! We need a boat.
Our first boat of the week is a tragedy, the dealer was quite nice though, a true sailor. He wore no socks and couldn't wait to get out of the cold, and selling boats was a means to that end. The boat itself needed a lot of TLC and new diesel tanks, as it had a major corroding lead tank that held the diesel. It smelled really bad of diesel, phew. We could hardly stand being down under and had to get out into the cold fast.
The second boat on our list wasn't much better, but the more professional dealer turned us onto two other boats for sell there at the marina. This dealer was another character all together, a sail maker by trade and salesman for all the other stuff. He was very knowledgeable about sails and sailboats. The boat we saw had a horrible design and needed too much work to list. The two other boats were placed on our list of potentials because they seem sturdy and seemed to need less work than the first two.
The third boat (or fifth if you count the two extra at prior marina) we thought was a true potential contender with good motion comfort, it turned out to be a disappointment. The design sucked, we explained this nicely to the broker. This broker kindly told us he mainly deals with boats in upper 100k price range, so we basically are out of his price range. Then further told us he was having a custom wood boat made because wood are better than all the rest. We did enjoy visiting this marina because it is the biggest live aboard marina in the area.
The fourth boat was a disaster. It needed just about everything replaced, one could take years and thousands fixing this just to get it off the hard. We drove an hour and a half to see it, however, it wasn't a wasted drive because we stopped at a couple marinas and got a good feel about this northern area.
The next day we were sort of burned out and let down with all these train wrecks of sailboats. Pretty much all of them need a ton of work and look worse in person then in the pictures. When we are on the boat we can smell (the diesel moldy stuff) and feel (the spongy decks and corroded metals), so it gives a much more telling picture of the boat's overall condition. Under hubby's burnt out protest, we went to see the next boat. It turned out to be pretty nice, not ideal, but well taken care of. You can really tell when the owner spends time on their boat and maintains it, rather than letting go all the maintenance. This was a comfy boat, just a little too small in the cabin and no aft berth. It was placed on our contender list.
We took a break from shopping for boats the next to last day, had some fun. Rode the monorail and ate good food. We also played phone tag with a well traveled boat owner who we worked out a boat viewing for our last day of boat viewing, it would be the sixth one on our list or eighth one viewed on this trip.
The sixth and last boat we viewed was another project boat. It had potential, but a lot of work needed. It had an owner who once loved her, but could no longer do it. It was a little too small and short inside, so basically a no go. We spent time in this boat, about two hours, because we mostly just talked with the owner about everything. He was the most interesting person we came across in our boat shopping adventure.
Now here we are, a grand out for the trip, days of being cold, wet, and tired, and maybe we found a boat that says buy me, love me. Then again maybe not. It will all be determined by the money, how much are we willing to give up, and how much the owner is willing to give up too by taking our low ball offer. Or do we try another plan, take all our money elsewhere, give up our dream of sailing and traveling the world? Heck no! We need a boat.
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